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From the Age of Reason to Postmodern Sophistry
We awoke from the “modern” dream
They spoke once about an Age of Reason, when “Renaissance men” were hailed as geniuses because of their intellectual discoveries and innovations.
Yet we’re living now in a so-called postmodern condition of apathy and cynicism.
Our heroes are gross anti-intellectuals like Donald Trump, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2016 and 2024.
The internet was supposed to unite everyone by presenting us with the same information and opportunities, but the opposite happened: we’re encouraged to explore our walled gardens and clash with endless streams of opposing worldviews. Deranged conspiracy theories flood social media platforms because the truth is too complicated and unsexy for the big tech companies. Our discourse is increasingly dominated by spoiled, enfeebled left-wing ideologues and their toxic counterparts on the authoritarian right.
Ours looks like a sophistical Age of Post-Reason. Rationalists, we assume, were always naïve in thinking that reason can tell us the neutral facts. That was only ever a myth, a “metanarrative” since everything is politicized and all we’re doing when we think or speak is telling ourselves and each other various stories. Nonfiction is still a genre of storytelling, we assume, as…
